The present invention relates generally to medicine schedule reminders, and more particularly to devices which provide information on medication requirements to patients.
Many people today are taking a complicated course of medications, especially people with chronic diseases and many co-morbidities or many different diseases; e.g., diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, kidney disease, peripheral-vessel disease, vision problems, etc., and combinations of diseases such as hypertension and diabetes together. The most chronic diseases are found in individuals who are elderly and typically taking multiple medications, frequently five or more. Many of these medications are taken multiple times a day, and not all of them are taken together. There may be four pills of one medication to be taken during the day, two for another, six for another, and others that are taken every hour.
How to help these people manage their medications has been a longstanding problem; i.e. when to take them and the right number to take. One of the simplest ways to approach this problem which has been with an alarm clock and a detailed instruction sheet showing how to set the alarm clock for the next medication. Very complicated devices have been developed for reminding people to take their medications or to provide for dispensing their medications. The simplest examples are medications which have been customized in blister packs. If, over the course of the day, a patient has to have ten medication cycles, the medicines are clustered by when they need to be taken. There may be three in one blister pack, one in the next, two in the next, three in the next, etc., and the reminders are set according to when each of the blisters needs to be opened and the medication taken.
Other approaches have included programming embedded computers in pill dispensers. Most of these embedded computers are difficult to program because they may have small compartments for the pills, a display where it is necessary to enter the name of the medication and when it is supposed to be taken, the current time, and other associated data in order to program them. The patients themselves often cannot program these computers because they are just too difficult. And even though there are quite a few of these computers, the only place where they seem to have found much use are as adjuncts to drug trials where the clinicians running the drug trials program the embedded computers to be given to the patients for receiving the experimental medications.
Almost all of these devices rely on the language and the pharmaceutical name of the medication. Unfortunately, most people rely on the color or shape of the medication for identification rather than the name.
Proper consumption of medication is a major challenge that is going to exist worldwide for a considerable time because the mean age of the entire population is shifting. There are a lot of older people moving through the demographics in almost all countries, not just the U.S. and Europe and developed Asia. The situation is getting worse for two reasons: the older the individual, the more diseases; and there are more medications for each of the diseases.
The present invention provides a medical navigator based not on a programming perspective, but a use perspective. It has a color picture of the medication to be taken on the dispenser to be used. A picture is used because the pharmaceutical industry worldwide has standardized on the colors. For example, black and yellow pills mean barbiturates. Capsules and caplets are uniquely colored for the medicines. Pharmacists can readily tell what the pill is by looking at it. There is a good reason for this; this is the way patients look at their medications. The medical navigator provides a color picture of the medication to be taken, and, where the size of the screen, permits, the actual size of the medication. This permits medications and dosages to be readily identified by a patient correctly and quickly at the prescribed time. With additional symbol and image grouping, the instructions are presented visually, easily crossing language barriers and other literacy challenges.
The present invention further provides an indication of the time of day a medication needs to be taken. Sunrise would show the sun coming up with a rooster. Mealtime would show the medication superimposed on a plate with food. xe2x80x98No dairy productsxe2x80x99 would show a cheese wheel or some representation of a dairy product within a circle with slash of the international xe2x80x9cnoxe2x80x9d sign superimposed on it. Ideally, the medical navigator would be independent of language.
The present invention further provides a simple audio or vibrator reminder so it suits the environment a patient is in. If the patient happens to be in the theatre, a library, or some other place that is quiet, the vibrator can be turned on. Ideally, the medical navigator is approximately credit-card-size, so it can fit in a pocket and the vibrator would signal the reminder. In other cases, a patient may want an audible reminder depending on personal preference or where the patient happens to be.
The present invention further provides interaction with the patient to get to the next medication as an indication that the current medication has been taken. The next medication does not appear until further interaction which indicates whether the person is feeling better or worse. That is the most important information about how a patient is doing: i.e., xe2x80x9cAre you feeling as you did?xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cAre you feeling better than you felt yesterday?xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cAre you feeling worse?xe2x80x9d This is done continually to track the outcomes from a patient""s perspective. This patient provided compliance and outcomes status enables a much more effective approach to medication management including, but not limited to, development of side effects, co-morbidities, other complications and subtending effectiveness for the entire therapeutic regime reaching beyond the medications alone.
The present invention further provides a medical navigator used with a radio frequency-coupled or infrared-coupled interface from a personal computer or some other type of computer. It can be done by way of a medical service, or it can be done at the pharmacy.
The present invention further provides a medical navigator which has access to the pharmaceutical indexes to display the images for the medications. The medical navigator shows different sizes because there are different doses, so the appropriate one for each dose is shown.
The present invention further provides a medical navigator which shows a scaled replica of medications. Most of the pill forms, capsules and caplets, readily show in actual size. Most of the bottled versions, vaporizers, ampoules, large pads, syringes, and other things rely on some scaled representation. Again, there are different color codes that are used, because there are different medications and doses. The pharmaceutical industry is very knowledgeable about the use models. It is known that patients go by size and color, not name, for their medications.
The present invention further provides a medical navigator which shows a simple dosage as well as the common name for the drug and the time of day for it to be dispensed.
The present invention further provides a medical navigator which can be programmed remotely with a small unit in the home that would act like an answering machine and would cradle the medical navigator. A service could query the device, first to obtain all of the compliance data and then to obtain data regarding how the patient has been feeling, i.e., has he/she been feeling better or worse, and how did that track over the whole medication cycle. Then any new information required for the medications would be downloaded.